Sunflower Kisses
by cutiechibi
Summary: Ever since that first girl in their classroom gushed over her first kiss every girl secretly wanted one too. I've never done it before so I wanted to ask you. How do you kiss someone? An Ino and Sakura shoujo ai fic.


_**Sunflower Kisses**_  
  
By: _Chibi Shi-Chan (cutie chibi)_

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Summary: "I've never done it before so I wanted to ask you. How do you kiss someone?"  
  
Pairings: Ino and Sakura with mention of Sasuke and Sakura, but it's just mentioning them. You'll see when you read.  
  
Warnings: Shoujo ai. Which I've never really written too much of even if I love it to death. It's just a cute idea I got in my head when I woke up this morning. A little angst, but just a little.  
  
Spoilers: Not really I don't think. Maybe just a few.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I wouldn't be a poor college student.  
  
Notes: Hope you all enjoy it. I do like the idea of these two together because there are points in the series where it is hinted at a lot. The Ino and Sakura fight with all those flashbacks of them being little and such kinda had me melting, it was really sweet. So yeah, this fic was born because I've wanted to write about them for a while I just never had any ideas.

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According to the third edition of the _American Heritage Dictionary_:  
  
**best**: _Surpassing all others in quality_.  
  
**friend**: _A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts_.  
  
**rival**: _One who attempts to equal or surpass another; competitor_.  
  
But how blurry can the definitions get when you trust your rival, or when your rival is not only your friend but your best friend?

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Her watch read five thirty-seven. It was an odd time to arrive at any place when people liked to be on the hour, half the hour, or a quarter to the hour. The sky behind her was beginning to turn into a spectacle of oranges and yellows, tis the season of the sun setting earlier but not so early that the village was getting that winter chill. After standing at the door for another nervous fifty-five seconds the girl whose hair was the color of a perfect scoop of strawberry ice cream entered. She was greeted with hands made of flower petals, each one welcoming her into the shop once again since they knew that those eyes that matched their leaves in color belonged to the girl who came into the shop the most. Last time was to bring flowers to two boys who were sadly in the hospital, one a long time crush and the other a devoted young man of her love and respect.  
  
"Sakura?" And behind the counter she stood, the one she had been looking for. Clad in her normal purple outfit and ready to close up the shop Ino blinked round baby blue eyes at her once upon a time best friend now turned rival. "What are you doing here?" Sakura visited the shop every now and then yes, but visiting it wearing a dress made up of beautiful sunflowers, the thin straps resting against perfect peach colored skin with cloud colored white sandals that added to the entire pretty girl effect wasn't exactly a normal action for her.  
  
"Um... I wanted to ask you something..." And usually now was the time to make a soul cutting comment about the girl needing to ask her something because that's what rivals did, but for some reason Ino couldn't find her voice. A reflexive action of running her fingers through her hair to show a bit of nervousness was in order, but the cotton candy yellow haired girl couldn't do that to the now short strands of hair. Nervous because she couldn't stop staring at Sakura, could only think of negative words like pretty, cute... beautiful...  
  
It didn't help that her entire opinion of Sakura had changed. Making the mistake of watching a once closed up flower of a little girl grow up into one of those flowers you'd just stare at and never, ever pick because it was just too beautiful to do that to. She had also made the mistake of being there for those moments when Sakura showed a strength that not even Ino herself could scratch the surface of.  
  
Namely when she cut her hair so she could keep fighting against the Sound ninjas and when she fought in the Chunnin exams against her.  
  
That moment when the long strands of pink littered the ground and Sakura stood there, allowing much shorter strands to blow around her face in a determined wind was the first time Ino realized how loudly her heart pounded inside of her ears whenever they were around each other. The second moment was during their match when she released her forehead protector and just stood there, expecting Ino to do the same. For some strange reason Sakura looked best when she had a determined look on her face.  
  
Just like she did now as they stood face to face in the shop. What was it exactly that she wanted to ask her?  
  
"I was about to close the shop..."  
  
"... I have a date with Sasuke-kun tonight." Her heart stopped. Completely stopped working. Ino was sure that her body was trying to tell her heart that it needed to continue beating or else the girl would die but at the moment her heart only heard one thing.  
  
Date... with Sasuke-kun.  
  
Sasuke. The one who unintentionally started the rivalry that everyone in the entire village knew about. Started the rivalry with those midnight eyes, unruly hair, I don't give a damn attitude and fall in love with me body. Anyone with or without eyes could understand why girls who once played in flowers together would shove each other out the way to get the chance to sit next to the boy. At the same time...  
  
... part of Ino missed those days of talking in the flowers.  
  
That part had grown bigger those two times she had saw a different Sakura. Started thinking that mint green eyes looked much better than midnight ones. Started wondering if her lips were as soft as the petals she was named after instead of his lips being as fierce as the punches and kicks he threw in the middle of combat. Started realizing... that... maybe she didn't like Sasuke as much as she thought she did. Started realizing... that she was doing the grade school thing that little boys did to the girls they secretly had a crush on.  
  
Poke fun at them. Push them around. It was their way of saying _I like you_. Ino was doing the same to Sakura. She would make fun of her. She would make comments about Sasuke just to piss her off. She became her rival, became the one to flirt with Sasuke to get the fire in her eyes, became that little boy who always pulled at the girl's hair and ran off laughing while she cried... all because he liked her.  
  
Ino liked Sakura. Sasuke was just a childish way to say that she did. But... apparently Sakura never got the message. Her feelings for Sasuke were real and Sasuke obviously returned them if they were going out on a date. So where did that leave Ino? What was she to do? Take the rival route or the best friend route? How odd it was, not too long ago the word rival didn't even associate with Sakura but now...  
  
"What does that have to do with me?" Maybe she could be a little of both. She could still be a rival and give Sakura a hard time, yet be a friend and give responses that showed the other girl that she would at least consider doing what she was about to ask her. Ino toyed with the idea of Sakura coming to brag to her but when that once determined look melted into... nervousness of all things...  
  
"Well... I've never been on a date and... and sometimes guys kiss the girls at the end of the date." It was the secret hidden desire for the girls at the end of their dates. Ever since that first girl in their classroom gushed over her first kiss every girl secretly wanted one too. So of course, the inevitable question came. "I've never done it before so I wanted to ask you. How do you kiss someone?" As much as she wanted a kiss Sakura was no expert and didn't want her precious Sasuke-kun to think badly of her.  
  
"What? You're asking me to tell you how to kiss someone?" Sakura simply nodded, the slightest of blushes staining her cheeks. "It's not something you can really tell someone how to do." Ino knew from personal experience. She had experienced her first kiss quite sometime ago with a boy she hardly knew, but she wanted to know what the big deal was. She didn't think it was all that great. It was very messy and actually very intimidating and afterwards she had ran home and brushed her teeth for ten minutes. But then... maybe she gave her first kiss away to the wrong person.  
  
And here Sakura was about to go through the same thing with Sasuke. Every girl, guy, person in the village would be talking about the first kiss of Haruno Sakura. Her first kiss would be given to Sasuke... unless...  
  
"You kind of just... do it. You know? The only way I could tell you how to kiss is to... show you." It was a most underhanded way to steal her crush's first kiss but at the moment Ino didn't care. For at least one moment she wanted to be beyond the simple definitions of best friend/rival. After this, after this Sasuke could have all the kisses he wanted.  
  
All she wanted was one.  
  
"Show me?" Ino could see the battle Sakura was having inside of her head over the idea. Those eyes of hers betrayed her every time, not to mention that the light blush made itself known by getting brighter. _Show me how to kiss? That means she'd have to kiss me. I wanted Sasuke-kun to be my first kiss but... what if I mess up with him? At least if I mess up with her I can learn then be good at it when he kisses me. But that would mean... kissing her..._ Ino was ready to give up on the entire idea but finally Sakura gave the slightest of nods. "You can show me, but you don't tell anyone about it."  
  
"Of course." Just one. That's all she wanted and she'd keep it for herself and for that diary buried underneath her underwear and socks. The two stood still for quite a while and the ticking of the clock in the store seemed to boom in high stereo surround sound. Even if Ino admitted that she wanted the kiss it didn't mean that she was very confident about it.  
  
That first kiss with that one boy was just an experiment, a failed one. She had felt ready to throw up when he snuck his tongue inside with too much experience that her mind didn't understand and her body didn't react to. She had made the mistake of giving her first kiss to that boy and despite the fact that kissing Sakura might mean taking the girl's first kiss when she obviously wanted Sasuke to have it...  
  
... Ino stepped closer to Sakura, watching her slide her eyes shut and just stand there in anticipation. Was it really taking when the person looked so damn inviting?  
  
Taking a deep breath Ino brushed her lips against Sakura's, just a light brush of lips that was too soft to tell if they met or not. Sakura copied the move and brushed her lips back against Ino's only with a bit more pressure, but not enough to really call it a kiss. Their lips were close, definitely close enough to close the distance and make it an official kiss. Sakura's breath was dancing across Ino's lips, teasing her and whispering to her. _Come closer_. Ino's lips complied with the silent request and pressed themselves against something too warm and too soft to call lips.  
  
Gods it felt good.  
  
Their lips stayed pressed together like that, in a comfortable embrace, for what felt like an eternity. There was a silent question hanging in the air about taking it any further and Ino had a quick flash of that first kiss she had. The feeling it gave her was nothing compared to this, but she had to ask herself how would Sakura feel if she did what that boy did.  
  
It took about five seconds for that question to be answered. It took another second for Ino to brush her tongue against Sakura's lips, tasting them and shivering when she tasted the color of Sakura's hair. Strawberry ice cream. Sakura made a soft, almost purring noise and allowed her lips to part on instinct. Two seconds after that found Sakura's arms thrown around Ino's shoulders to pull her closer into one of those kisses the girls only heard about or read about in those notes passed across the classroom. Ino's arms had found a home around Sakura's waist, both girls trembling against each other and wondering if it was such a bad thing to run out of breath. It couldn't have been, not when Ino decided that one of her hands belonged in Sakura's hair while Sakura discovered that sunflowers had a flavor, a damn good one at that.  
  
Ino tasted like the flowers in the shop, the flowers on Sakura's dress, the flowers they use to play in as children. There was something warm about the moment and it was everything that one of those romance novels hinted at in their beautiful literature. It was a kiss that wasn't about experience, about expertise. It was a kiss that didn't give any instructions on going faster or slower. It was simply a kiss, a first kiss that was precious and would be remembered for years to come. One of those stories to tell your children when they asked about kissing. Was it done wrong or right, neither one knew. Was there really a right way to kiss someone? Funny, the boy who kissed Ino did it all wrong while Sakura in all her bashfulness did it completely right.  
  
Was that the secret to a good kiss? Wrong was doing it with the wrong person? Right was doing it with the right person? Sakura probably could've stepped on Ino's foot and they never would've lost a beat. Ino could've just polished off a bowl of ramen that would make Naruto drool, tasted like chicken or beef, and all Sakura would ever taste was sunflowers on one of those perfect weather days.  
  
Sunflowers. They were quite nice indeed.  
  
Unfortunately lungs decided to protest and the two girls broke away, both of them sporting matching faces of red as their lungs thanked them for finally letting air pass through their lips. They'd have to learn that breathing in between kisses thing later.  
  
Neither really knew what to say, what could be said? Any kind of words would completely shatter the moment. But something had to be said, something had to put them back into reality.  
  
"I... I think I get it now..." Shattered. Completely and utterly shattered. Ino loosened her grip on Sakura and let her go, remembering that this was just a display on how to share this with Sasuke. It made it worse to see Sakura smiling, looking as if she had accomplished the greatest thing in the history of the village.  
  
"Good. I'm sure Sasuke will enjoy it." And then the smile turned into giggling, giggling into laughter. Shattered didn't cover it. Not at all. Shattering was something glass did and Ino's heart at the moment was ten million times more fragile than glass. Rivals, rivals bragged and this was definitely the bragging period. Not only did she have a date with Sasuke but Ino was foolish enough, for a few seconds at least, to read more into the moment.  
  
Sakura headed to the door, ready to go off on her date and share that kiss. "Ino?" But she didn't leave just yet. She had one more thing to say. Ino gave her full attention and tried not to wince when she saw that smile grow brighter. "There never was a date."  
  
Ino's jaw dropped. She tried to speak but words were impossible to form. Sakura just smiled once more and left the shop, enjoying the sunflower flavor that was still tingling against her lips and silently cheering from stealing her first kiss from the girl she wanted to receive it from. Cheering from the classic Kodak moment worthy look on Ino's face. Beating Ino and kissing her all at the same time was the best date Sakura could ever have.  
  
After a moment of standing in absolute shock Ino found herself smiling. Three times. Three times she had been taken by surprise by that girl. Definitely worthy to be a rival, also, thankfully, a best friend... and maybe even...

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**love**: _Deep affection and a warm feeling for another_.  
  
... love. That was what Sakura had been to her from the very start. And wasn't it true that best friends had deep feelings for each other? And to a certain extent didn't rivals feel for each other too? Funny how she realized all of that among flowers, the very things they had started their lives together in.

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_Owari_  
  
Author's Comments: Yeah, just a short little fic that popped in my head in the mist of all those long fics. The dictionary I have is very old and beat up so if definitions aren't very accurate or whatnot, that's why.


End file.
